Illustrated is a large ishime-ji style tsubo
with incised decoration inlaid in white depicting an abstracted battle scene
from an ancient Japanese story. Measuring about 16" tall and the same
wide, the piece is called DAN(no)URA and based on the pivotal sea battle
between the warring Minamoto and Taira clans during the late 12th century Heike
War. Thrown out of white stoneware, the jar has a clear glaze interior and
vitreous grey-black and white exterior and fired to both cone 8 and then cone
6. I went with the banded style of decoration to mimic the emaki-mono style of
narrative scroll format that was immensely popular for depicting such stories
in medieval Japan.
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